CHAPTER 1
Bikaner holds a secondary rank amongst the principalities of Rajputana. It is an offset of Marwar, its princes being scions of the house of Jodha, who established themselves by conquest on the northern frontier of the parent State; and its position, in the heart of the desert, has contributed to the maintenance of their independence.
Rāo Bīka, A.D. 1465-1504.
Such expeditions as that of Bika, undertaken expressly for conquest, were almost [179] uniformly successful. The invaders set out with a determination to slay or be slain; and these forays had the additional stimulus of being on “fated days,” when the warlike creed of the Rajputs made the abstraction of territory from foe or friend a matter of religious duty.
Bika, with his band of three hundred, fell upon the Sankhlas[[2]] of Janglu, whom they massacred. This exploit brought them in contact with the Bhattis of Pugal,[[3]] the chief of which gave his daughter in marriage to Bika, who fixed his headquarters at Kuramdesar, where he erected a castle, and gradually augmented his conquests from the neighbourhood.
The Conquest of the Jats.
Of this celebrated and widely spread race we have already given a succinct account.[[4]] It appears to have been the most numerous as well as the most conspicuous of the tribes of ancient Asia, from the days of Tomyris and Cyrus to those of the present Jat prince of Lahore, whose successor, if he be endued with similar energy, may, on the reflux of population, find himself seated in their original haunts of Central Asia, to which they have already considerably advanced.[[5]] In the fourth century we find a Yuti or Jat kingdom established in the Panjab;[[6]] but how much earlier this people colonized those regions we are ignorant. At every step made by Muhammadan power in India it encountered the Jats. On their memorable defence of the passage of the Indus against Mahmud, and on the war of extirpation waged against them by Timur, both in their primeval seats in Mawaru-l-nahr,[[7]] as well as east of the Sutlej, we have already enlarged; while Babur, in his Commentaries, informs us that, in all his irruptions into India, he was assailed by multitudes of Jats[[8]] during his progress through the Panjab, the peasantry of which region, now proselytes to Islam, are chiefly of this tribe; as well as the [180] military retainers, who, as sectarian followers of Nanak, merge the name of Jat, or Jāt, into that of Sikh or ‘disciple.’[[9]]
In short, whether as Yuti, Getae, Jats, Juts, or Jāts, this race far surpassed in numbers, three centuries ago, any other tribe or race in India; and it is a fact that they now constitute a vast majority of the peasantry of western Rajwara, and perhaps of northern India.
At what period these Jats established themselves in the Indian desert, we are, as has been already observed, entirely ignorant; but even at the time of the Rathor invasion of these communities their habits confirmed the tradition of their Scythic origin. They led chiefly a pastoral life, were guided, but not governed by the elders, and with the exception of adoration to the ‘universal mother’ (Bhavani), incarnate in the person of a youthful Jatni, they were utter aliens to the Hindu theocracy. In fact, the doctrines of the great Islamite saint, Shaikh Farid,[[10]] appear to have overturned the pagan rites brought from the Jaxartes; and without any settled ideas on religion, the Jats of the desert jumbled all their tenets together. They considered themselves, in short, as a distinct class, and, as a Punia Jat informed me, “their watan was far beyond the Five Rivers.” Even in the name of one of the six communities (the Asaich), on whose submission Bika founded his new State, we have nearly the Asi, the chief of the four tribes from the Oxus and Jaxartes, who overturned the Greek kingdom of Bactria.[[11]]
The period of Rathor domination over these patriarchal communities was intermediate between Timur’s and Babur’s invasion of India. The former, who was the founder of the Chagatai dynasty, boasts of the myriads of Jat souls he “consigned to perdition” on the desert plains of India, as well as in Transoxiana; so we may conclude that successive migrations of this people from the great “storehouse of nations” went to the lands east of the Indus, and that the communities who elected Bika as their sovereign had been established therein for ages. The extent of their possessions justifies this conclusion; for nearly the whole of the territory forming the boundaries of Bikaner was possessed by the six Jat cantons, namely—
- 1. Punia.
- 2. Godara.
- 3. Saharan.
- 4. Asaich.
- 5. Beniwal [or Bhanniwal].
- 6. Johya, or Joiya [181].
though this last is by some termed a ramification of the Yadu-Bhatti: an affiliation by no means invalidating their claims to be considered of Jat or Yuti origin.[[12]]
Each canton bore the name of the community, and was subdivided into districts. Besides the six Jat cantons, there were three more simultaneously wrested from Rajput proprietors; namely, Bagor, the Kharipatta, and Mohila. The six Jat cantons constituted the central and northern, while those of the Rajputs formed the western and southern frontiers.
Disposition of the Cantons at that period.
| Cantons. | No. of Villages. | Districts. | |
| 1. | Punia | 300 | Bahaduran, Ajitpur, Sidmukh, Rajgarh, Dadrewa, Sanku, etc. |
| 2. | Beniwal [or Bhanniwāl] | 150 | Bhukarka, Sondari, Manoharpur, Kui, Bai, etc. |
| 3. | Johya | 600 | Jethpur, Kumbhana, Mahajan, Pipasar, Udaipur, etc. |
| 4. | Asaich | 150 | Rawatsar, Barmsar, Dandusar, Gandeli. |
| 5. | Saran | 300 | Kejar, Phog, Buchawas, Sawai, Badinu, Sirsila, etc. |
| 6. | Godara | 700 | Pundrasar, Gosainsar (great), Shaikhsar Garsisar, Gharibdesar, Rangesar, Kalu, etc. |
| Total in the six Jat cantons | 2200 | ||
| 7. | Bagor | 300 | Bikaner, Nal, Kela, Rajasar, Satasar, Chhattargarh, Randasar, Bitnokh, Bhavanipur, Jaimallsar, etc. |
| 8. | Mohila | 140 | Chaupar (capital of Mohila), Sonda, Hirasar, Gopalpur, Charwas, Bidasar, Ladnun, Malsasar, Kharbuza-ra-kot. |
| 9. | Kharipatta, or salt district | 30 | |
| Grand Total | 2670 | ||
With such rapidity were States formed in those times, that in a few years after Bika left his paternal roof at Mandor he was lord over 2670 villages, and by a title far stronger and more legitimate than that of conquest—the spontaneous election of the cantons. But although three centuries have scarcely passed since their amalgamation [182] into a sovereignty, one-half of the villages cease to exist; nor are there now 1300 forming the raj of Surat Singh, the present occupant and lineal descendant of Bika.[[13]]
The Jats and Johyas of these regions, who extended over all the northern desert even to the Gara, led a pastoral life, their wealth consisting in their cattle, which they reared in great numbers, disposing of the superfluity, and of the ghi (butter clarified) and wool, through the medium of Sarsot (Sarasvati) Brahmans (who, in these regions, devote themselves to traffic), receiving in return grain and other conveniences or necessaries of life.
Bīda conquers the Mohil Clan.
Pandu was the patriarchal head of the Godaras; his residence was at Shaikhsar.[[14]] The ‘elder’ of Ronia was next in rank and estimation to Pandu, in communities where equality was as absolute as the proprietary right to the lands which each individually held: that of pasture being common.
The elders of Shaikhsar and Ronia were deputed to enter into terms with the Rajput prince, and to invest him with supremacy over their community, on the following conditions:—
First. To make common cause with them, against the Johyas and other cantons, with whom they were then at variance.
Second. To guard the western frontier against the irruption of the Bhattis [183].
Third. To hold the rights and privileges of the community inviolable.
On the fulfilment of these conditions they relinquished to Bika and his descendants the supreme power over the Godaras; assigning to him, in perpetuity, the power to levy dhuan, or a ‘hearth tax,’ of one rupee on each house in the canton, and a land tax of two rupees on each hundred bighas of cultivated land within their limits.
Apprehensive, however, that Bika or his descendants might encroach upon their rights, they asked what security he could offer against such a contingency? The Rajput chief replied that, in order to dissipate their fears on this head, as well as to perpetuate the remembrance of the supremacy thus voluntarily conferred, he would solemnly bind himself and his successors to receive the tika of inauguration from the hands of the descendants of the elders of Shaikhsar and Ronia, and that the gaddi should be deemed vacant until such rite was administered.
In this simple transfer of the allegiance of this pastoral people we mark that instinctive love of liberty which accompanied the Getae in all places and all conditions of society, whether on the banks of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, or in the sandy desert of India; and although his political independence is now annihilated, he is still ready even to shed his blood if his Rajput master dare to infringe his inalienable right to his bapota, his paternal acres.
Former Owners conferring Titles on their Successors.
Besides this periodical recognition of the transfer of power, on all lapses of the crown, there are annual memorials of the rights of the Godaras, acknowledged not only by the prince, but by all his Rajput vassal-kin, quartered on the lands of the Jat; and although ‘the sons of Bika,’ now multiplied over the country, do not much respect the ancient compact, they at least recognize, in the maintenance of these formulae, the origin of their power.
On the spring and autumnal[[16]] festivals of the Holi and Diwali, the heirs of the patriarchs of Shaikhsar and Ronia give the tika to the prince and all his feudality. The Jat of Ronia bears the silver cup and platter which holds the ampoule of the desert, while his compeer applies it to the prince’s forehead. The Raja in return deposits a nazarana of a gold mohur, and five pieces of silver; the chieftains, according to their rank, following his example. The gold is taken by the Shaikhsar Jat, the silver by the elder of Ronia.
Conquest of the Johya Tribe.
The patriarchal head of the Johyas resided at Bharopal;[[19]] his name was Sher Singh [185]. He mustered the strength of the canton, and for a long time withstood the continued efforts of the Rajputs and the Godaras; nor was it until “treason had done its worst,” by the murder of their elder, and the consequent possession of Bharopal, that the Johyas succumbed to Rathor domination.
Foundation of Bīkaner, A.D. 1455-88.
When Bika was thus firmly established, his uncle Kandhal, to whose spirit of enterprise he was mainly indebted for success, departed with his immediate kin to the northward, with a view of settling in fresh conquests. He successively subjugated the communities of Asaich, Beniwal, and Saran, which cantons are mostly occupied by his descendants, styled Kandhalot Rathors, at this day, and although they form an integral portion of the Bikaner State, they evince, in their independent bearing to its chief, that their estates were “the gift of their own swords, not of his patents”; and they pay but a reluctant and nominal obedience to his authority. When necessity or avarice imposes a demand for tribute, it is often met by a flat refusal, accompanied with such a comment as this: “Who made this Raja? Was it not our common ancestor, Kandhal? Who is he, who presumes to levy tribute from us?” Kandhal’s career of conquest was cut short by the emperor’s lieutenant in Hissar; he was slain in attempting this important fortress.
Death of Bīka. Nūnkaran or Lūnkaran, A.D. 1504-26.
Jeth Singh, A.D. 1526-41.
Kalyān Singh, A.D. 1541-71.
Rāē Singh, A.D. 1571-1611. Bīkaner subject to the Mughals. Akbar’s Marriage.
Subjugation of the Johyas.
Traditions of Greek Settlements.
The affinity that this word (Hakra) has both to the Ghaggar, and Sankra,[[25]] would lead to the conclusion of either being the stream referred to. The former we know as being engulphed in the sands about the Hariana confines, while the Sankra is a stream which, though now dry, was used as a line of demarcation even in the time of Nadir Shah. It ran eastward, parallel with the Indus, and by making it his boundary, Nadir added all the fertile valley of the Indus to his Persian kingdom. (See map.) The only date this legendary stanza assigns for the catastrophe is the reign of the Sodha prince, Hamir.
Ram Singh, having thus destroyed the power of future resistance in the Johyas, turned his arms against the Punia Jats, the last who preserved their ancient liberty. They were vanquished, and the Rajputs were inducted into their most valuable possessions. But the conqueror paid the penalty of his life for the glory of colonizing the lands of the Punias. He was slain in their expiring effort to shake off the yoke of the stranger; and though the Ramsinghgots add to the numerical strength, and enlarge the territory of the heirs of Bika, they, like the Kandhalots, little increase the power [188] of the State, to which their obedience is nominal. Sidmukh and Sanku are the two chief places of the Ramsinghgots.
Thus, with the subjugation of the Punias, the political annihilation of the six Jat cantons of the desert was accomplished: they are now occupied in agriculture and their old pastoral pursuits, and are an industrious tax-paying race under their indolent Rajput masters.
Rāē Singh in Akbar’s Service.
Karan Singh, A.D. 1631-69.
Karan held the ‘mansab of two thousand,’ and the government of Daulatabad, in his father’s lifetime. Being a supporter of the just claims of Dara Shukoh, a plot was laid by the general of his antagonist, with whom he served, to destroy him, but which he was enabled to defeat by the timely intelligence of the Hara prince of Bundi. He died at Bikaner, leaving four sons: (1) Padma Singh, (2) Kesari Singh, (3) Mohan Singh, and (4) Anup Singh.
This family furnishes another example of the prodigal sacrifice of Rajput blood in the imperial service. The two elder princes were slain in the storm of Bijapur, and the tragical death of the third, Mohan Singh, in the imperial camp, forms an episode in Ferishta’s History of the Dekhan [189].[[28]]
Anūp Singh, A.D. 1669-98.
Sarūp Singh, A.D. 1698-1700.
Sujān Singh, A.D. 1700-1735.
Zorāwar Singh, A.D. 1735-45.
Gaj Singh, A.D. 1745-88.
He laid waste, filling up the wells, a considerable tract of country west of the frontier post of Anupgarh, to prevent the incursions of the Daudputras.[[32]]
Raja Gaj had some celebrity from the number of his offspring, having had sixty-one children, though all but six were the ‘sons of love.’ The legitimates were, Chhattar Singh, who died in infancy; Raj Singh, who was poisoned by the mother of Surat Singh, the reigning prince; Surthan Singh and Ajib Singh, both of whom fled the paternal roof to escape the fate of their elder brother, and are now at Jaipur; Surat Singh, Raja of Bikaner; and Shyam Singh, who enjoys a small appanage in Bikaner.
Rāj Singh, A.D. 1788.
Partāp Singh, A.D. 1788. Usurpation of Sūrat Singh.
By this act of severity, and the means it furnished, Surat returned to Bikaner, determined to remove the only bar between him and the crown, his prince and nephew. In this he found some difficulty, from the virtue and vigilance of his sister, who never lost sight of the infant. Frustrated in all attempts to circumvent her, and not daring to blazon the murder by open violence, he invited the needy Raja of Narwar to make proposals for his sister’s hand. In vain she urged her advanced period of life; and in order to deter the suitor, that she had already been affianced to Rana Arsi of Mewar. All his scruples vanished at the dower of three lakhs, which the regent offered [191] the impoverished scion of the famous Raja Nala.[[36]] Her objections were overruled and she was forced to submit; though she not only saw through her brother’s anxiety for her removal, but boldly charged him with his nefarious intentions. He was not content with disavowing them, but at her desire gave her the most solemn assurances of the child’s safety. Her departure was the signal of his death; for not long after he was found strangled, and it is said by the regent’s own hands, having in vain endeavoured to obtain the offices of the Mahajan chieftain as the executioner of his sovereign.
Sūrat Singh, A.D. 1788-1828.
Flushed with this brilliant success, Surat Singh determined to make his authority respected both at home and abroad. He invaded his turbulent countrymen, the Bidawats, and levied fifty thousand rupees from their lands. Churu,[[37]] which had promised aid to the late confederacy, was once more invested and mulcted, and various other places were attacked ere they could join. But one solitary castle was successfully defended, that of Chhani, near Bahaduran. Here the usurper was foiled, and, after six months’ fruitless siege, compelled to return to his capital.
Shortly after, he eagerly availed himself of an opportunity to punish the excesses of the Daudputras, and to withdraw attention from himself, by kindling a popular war against these powerful and turbulent neighbours. The occasion was the Kirani chief of Tirhara demanding his aid against his liege lord, Bahawal Khan. As these border feuds are not extinguished even in these days of universal peace, it may not be uninteresting to see the feudal muster-roll of the desert chiefs on such occurrences, as well as the mode in which they carry on hostilities. It was very shortly before that victory had preponderated on the side of the Rathors by a gallant coup-de-main of [192] the lord marcher of Bikaner, who carried the castle of Mozgarh[[38]] in a midnight assault. The hero on this occasion was not a Rathor, but a Bhatti chief, in the service of Bikaner, named Hindu Singh, who gained ‘immortality’ by the style in which he scaled the walls, put Muhammad Maaruf Kirani, the governor, and the garrison to the sword, and brought away captive to Bikaner the governor’s wife, who was afterwards ransomed for five thousand rupees and four hundred camels.
The outlaw who sought saran at Bikaner, on this occasion, was of the same tribe, Kirani, his name Khudabakhsh (‘gift of God’), chief of Tirhara, one of the principal fiefs of the Daudputras. With all his retainers, to the amount of three hundred horse and five hundred foot, he threw himself on the protection of Surat Singh, who assigned him twenty villages, and one hundred rupees daily for his support. The Kiranis were the most powerful vassals of Bahawal Khan, who might have paid dear for the resumption of Tirhara, whose chief promised the Rajput nothing less than to extend his conquests to the Indus. Allured by this bait, the Kher was proclaimed and the sons of Bika assembled from all quarters.
| Horse. | Foot. | Guns. | ||||||
| Abhai Singh, chief of | Bhukarka | 300 | 2000 | |||||
| Rao Ram Singh, of | Pugal | 100 | 400 | |||||
| Hathi Singh, of | Raner | 8 | 150 | |||||
| Karan Singh, of | Satasar | 9 | 150 | |||||
| Anup Singh, of | Jasara | 40 | 250 | |||||
| Khet Singh, of | Jamansar | 60 | 350 | |||||
| Beni Singh, of | Janglu | 9 | 250 | |||||
| Bhum Singh, of | Bithnok | 2 | 61 | |||||
| Feudal retainers | 528 | 3611 | ||||||
| Park under Maji Parihar | — | 21 | ||||||
| Foreign Brigade in the Raja’s service. |  | Khas Paiga, or household troop | 200 | — | ||||
| Camp of Ganga Singh | 200 | 1500 | 4 | |||||
| Do. of Durjan Singh | 60 | 600 | 4 | |||||
| Auxiliary Levies. |  | Anoka Singh |  | Sikh chieftains | 300 | — | ||
| Lahori Singh | 250 | — | ||||||
| Budh Singh | 250 | — | ||||||
| Sultan Khan |  | Afghans | 400 | — | ||||
| Ahmad Khan | ||||||||
| Total | 2188 | 5711 | 29 | |||||
| [193]. | ||||||||
Attack on Bahāwalpur.
Bhatti Invasion of Bīkaner.
Attack on Jodhpur.
With this system of terror, his increasing superstition, and diminished attention to public duties, the country is annually deteriorating in population and wealth; and as if they had not misery enough within, they have not had a single good season for years.[[41]] Owing to the disobedience of the northern chiefs, and the continual incursions of the Rahats, or ‘Bhatti robbers,’ who sweep the land of cattle, and often cut and carry off entire crops, the peasant Jat, the ancient lord of the soil, is often left to the alternative of starvation or emigration. Many have consequently sought shelter in the British frontier territories, in Hansi and Hariana, where they are kindly received. Since the English have occupied Sirsa and the lands belonging to the Bhatti Bahadur Khan, the misfortunes of the cultivators of the northern parts of Bikaner have been doubled by the inroads of a band left without resource. In some parts, the Jats combine to protect themselves against these inroads: every hamlet has its post of defence, a tower of earth, on which is perched a watchman and kettledrum, to beat the alarm, which is taken up from village to village, and when an enemy is discovered, all are in arms to defend their property. The unfortunate Jat is obliged to plough his fields under the load of shield and sang, or heavy iron lance; so that, at no distant period, the whole of this region must become as desolate as the tracts once possessed by the Johyas.[[42]]
Such, at the end of three hundred and twenty-three years, is the change which a Rajput usurper has effected in the once comparatively populous communities of the Jats. From the founder, Bika, to the present tyrannical governor, there have been only eleven descents though thirteen reigns, giving an average of thirty years for the one, and twenty-five for the other: a fact which speaks forcibly for the general morality of the descendants of Bika.
Bīdāvati.
We do the sons of Bida no injustice when we style them a community of plunderers. Like the sons of Esau, “their hand is against every man”: and they are too powerful to fear retaliation. In former times they used to unite with the Larkhanis [196], another horde of robbers, and carry their raids into the most populous parts of Jaipur. In these habits, however, they only partake of the character common to all who inhabit desert regions. What nature has denied them, they wrest from those to whom she has been more bountiful. But it is to the absence of good government more than to natural sterility that we must attribute the moral obliquity of the Rajaputras, ‘the offspring of regality,’ spread over these extensive regions, who little discriminate between meum and tuum, in all that refers to their neighbours.
[1]. [At present greatest length about 320 miles, greatest breadth 170 miles.]
[2]. [In 1911 the population was 2,057,553.]
[3]. [In 1911 respectively 125 and 279 per mille.]
[4]. The district of Sanchor is almost entirely Brahman, forming a distinct tribe, called the Sanchora Brahmans.
[5]. [At present the horses of Mallāni are most esteemed. By the “Jungle,” the Lākhi Jangal is meant.]
[6]. [Gawār, the horse bean, Dolichus biflorus.]
[7]. [In Nāgor district, N.W. of Jodhpur city.]
[8]. [This variety is grown without irrigation (Erskine iii. A. 103).]
[9]. [The varieties of soil now recognized are: matiyāli, clayey loam; bhūri, brown-coloured, and with less clay than matiyāli; retla, fine sand without clay; magra or tharra, on the slopes of hills, hard and containing pebbles (ibid. iii. A. 99).]
[10]. [Makrāna is 12 miles W. of Sāmbhar Lake. For its marbles see Sleeman, Rambles, 318; Hervey, Some Records of Crime, i. 100. The best marbles in Rājputāna are found at Makrāna, Tonkra in Kishangarh, Kharwar in Ajmer, and Raiālu in Jaipur; see Watt, Comm. Prod. 715.]
[11]. There is nothing which so much employs the assessors of justice, in those tribunals of arbitration, the Panchayats, as the adjudication of questions of property. The highest compliment ever paid to the Author was by the litigants of property amounting to half a million sterling, which had been going the rounds of various Panchayats and appeals to native princes, alike unsatisfactory in their results. They agreed to admit as final the decision of a court of his nomination. It was not without hesitation I accepted the mediation propounded through the British superintendent of Ajmer (Mr. Wilder); but knowing two men, whose integrity as well as powers of investigation were above all encomium, I could not refuse. One of these had given a striking instance of independence in support of the award his penetration had led him to pronounce, and which award being set aside on appeal, through favouritism, he abjured every future call as an arbitrator. He was not a wealthy man, but such was the homage paid to his integrity and talents, that the greatest despot in India found it politic to reassemble the court, have the case reconsidered, and permit justice to take its course. In like manner, his demand was, that, before he agreed to devote his time to unravelling all the intricacies of the case, both litigants should sign a muchalka, or ‘bond,’ to abide by the award. I have no recollection how it terminated.
[12]. [Cumin, Cuminum cyminum (Watt, Comm. Prod. 442).]
[13]. [Suigām in Pālanpur State, near the Ran of Cutch (BG, v. 348).]
[15]. The Author learns that important modifications of this system have been made by the legislative authorities at home: of their extent he is ignorant, except that remuneration to chiefs for the loss of transit duties has not been omitted. This is as it should be! [The opium question is still in a state of transition. Exports to China were closed in 1913, and, owing to the loss of revenue, compensation has been awarded to the Native States by the Government of India. For the trade up to 1911 see IGI, iv. 242 ff.; Watt, Comm. Prod. (1908), 845 ff.]
[16]. [For these fairs see Erskine iii. A. 206, 208.]
[17]. [The State jails have been reorganized, and humane treatment of prisoners is enforced (Erskine iii. A. 163 ff.).]
[18]. The Rajputs and Hindus in general hold precisely the same idea, of the cause of eclipses, as the Getae of Scandinavia. [This is a form of sympathetic magic: as prisoners are released, so will the sun and moon be freed from the demon.]
[19]. Chandrama. The moon is represented by silver, which is called after her (or him) chandi.
[20]. [According to the more common story, she walked through a pile of burning wood.]
[21]. [Since the reorganization of the Courts of Justice and the introduction of criminal codes, trial by ordeal has been prohibited (Erskine iii. A. 132 ff.). In 1854 Sir H. Lawrence made a treaty with Mewār which provided that “no person be seized on the plea of sorcery, witchcraft, or incantations” (Lee Warner, Native States of India, ed. 1910, p. 305).]
[22]. [The most solemn oath among the Scythians was by the royal hearth (Herodotus iv. 68).]
[23]. [The normal revenue of the State at the present time is about 56, and the expenditure 42 lakhs of rupees (Erskine iii. A. 140 ff.).]
[24]. [The State now maintains two regiments of Imperial Service Lancers, 1210 men, the whole force, including local troops, being about 2700 (ibid. iii. A. 158 ff.).]
[25]. The maund is about seventy-five lbs. weight.
[26]. Kan, ‘corn.’
[27]. The average selling price at Jodhpur is two rupees the maund; four at Sambhar and Didwana, and five at Pachbhadra, Phalodi, and Nawa. Why the price at the capital is 50 per cent lower than elsewhere, I know not, even if this statement is correct. [On the Rājputāna salt trade see Watt, Comm. Prod. 968 f. The present State income is now about 15 lakhs of rupees per annum (Erskine iii. A. 150 f.).]
[28]. [Saccharum sara.]
[29]. [On the production of barilla (sajji khar) see Watt, op. cit. 112 ff.[112 ff.]]
We may recapitulate what the old archives state of the aggregate fiscal revenues in past times, amounting to nearly thirty lakhs of rupees. It would be hazardous to say to what extent the amount was overrated:
| 1. | Khalisa, or fiscal land, from 1484 towns and villages | Rs. 1,500,000 |
| 2. | Sair or imposts | 430,000 |
| 3. | Salt lakes | 715,000 |
| 4. | Hasil, or miscellaneous taxes; fluctuating and uncertain; not less than | 300,000 |
| Total | 2,945,000 | |
| Feudal and ministerial estates | 5,000,000 | |
| Grand Total | 7,945,000 |
Thus the united fiscal and feudal revenues of Marwar are said to have amounted almost to eighty lakhs of rupees (£800,000). If they ever did reach this sum [175], which may be doubted, we do not err in affirming that they would not be overrated at half that amount. Large fortunes are said to centre in the families of the ex-ministers, especially the Singhi family, reported to be immensely rich. Their wealth is deposited in foreign capitals. But much bullion is lost to the currency of these countries by the
[30]. [At the present time the estates and septs of the Rāthor clan to which the twelve nobles belong are: Pokaran, Awa—Champāwat; Rian, Alniawās—Mertia; Rāēpur, Rās, Nīmāj, Agewa—Udāwat; Kharwa, Bhadrājan—Jodha. At a Darbār the Champāwats and Kūmpāwats sit to the right and the Jodhas, Mertias, and Udāwats to the left of the Mahārāja (Erskine iii. B. 40).]
[1]. [According to Erskine (iii. B. 85) Bika was born in 1439; left Jodhpur, 1465; founded Bikaner city, 1488.]
[2]. [The Sānkhlas are said to be a Panwār clan, but this is not certain (Census Report, Rājputāna, 1911, i. 256). Jānglu is about 20 miles S. of Bīkaner city.]
[3]. [About 120 miles N. of Bīkaner city: the ruler at present is one of the leading nobles of the State.]
[4]. Vol. I. p. [127], History of the Rajput Tribes—Article, Jats or Getae.
[5]. Ranjit has long been in possession of Peshawar, and entertained views on Kabul, the disorganized condition of which kingdom affords him a favourable opportunity of realizing them.
[6]. See Inscription, p. [914].
[7]. [The land beyond the Oxus.]
[8]. “On Friday the 14th (Dec. 29, A.D. 1525), of the first Rabi, we arrived at Sialkot. Every time that I have entered Hindustan, the Jats and Gujars have regularly poured down in prodigious numbers from their hills and wilds, in order to carry off oxen and buffaloes” [Elliot-Dowson iv. 24]. The learned commentator draws a distinction between the Jat inhabitants of the Panjab and of India, which is not maintainable.
[9]. “It is worthy of remark,” says Colonel Pitman (who accompanied Mr. Elphinstone to Kabul), “that in the two first Doabehs (return of the embassy) we saw very few Sikhs, the Jat cultivators of the soil being in general Moosulmauns, and in complete subjugation to the Sikhs.”
[10]. [Shaikh Farīd, known as Shakkarganj, ‘sugar-store,’ on account of his supposed miraculous power of transmuting dust or salt into sugar, was disciple of the famous Saint, Kutbu-d-dīn Bakhtyār Kāki. His life is supposed to have extended from A.D. 1173 to 1265. His tomb at Ajūdhan in the Montgomery District is a scene of pilgrimage.]
[11]. [He perhaps refers to the Asioi of Strabo (xi. 8. 2), who cannot be identified (Smith, EHI, 226). They have no connexion, except resemblance of name, with the Asaich.]
[12]. The Jats of the Agra province consider themselves illegitimate descendants of the Yadus of Bayana, and have a tradition that their watan [home] is Kandahar.
[13]. [Mahārāja Sūrat Singh reigned A.D. 1788-1828.]
[14]. This town is named after the Islamite saint, Shaikh Farid of Pakpattan, who has a dargah here. He was greatly esteemed by the Jats, before the Bona Dea assumed the shape of a Jatni, to whom, under the title of Kirani Mata, ‘a ray of the mother,’ all bend the head. [Her shrine is at Deshnok, about 25 miles S. of Bīkaner city, and is a sanctuary (Hervey, Some Records of Crime, i. 139).]
[15]. [This is a folk etymology. The name is derived from Hindi ner, Skt. nagara, ‘city’—the ‘city of Bīka.’]
[16]. Vide pp. 661, 695 for an account of these festivals.
[17]. [Elliot-Dowson iv. 232; the connexion of the mountains of Jūd, to which the Author constantly refers, with the Yādavas is incorrect.]
[18]. I presented a work on this race, entitled The Book of the Johyas (sent me by the prime minister of Jaisalmer) to the Royal Asiatic Society. Having obtained it just before leaving Rajputana, I never had leisure to examine it, or to pronounce on its value as an historical document; but any work having reference to so singular a community can scarcely fail to furnish matter of interest. [The Joiya or Johya tribe represent the ancient Yaudheya or ‘warlike’ peoples. It is incorrect to say that the name is extinct, because they are found on the banks of the Sutlej down to its confluence with the Indus; in Bīkaner in the old bed of the Ghaggar River below Bhatner, their ancient seat; in Lahore, Fīrozpur, the Derajāt, Multān, and the Salt Range (Cunningham, Ancient Geography, i. 65; Rose, Glossary, ii. 410 ff.).]
[19]. [One hundred and ten miles N.N.E. of Bīkaner city.]
[20]. To the few who will peruse these annals of the desert tribes it will be interesting to observe the development of families, and the maintenance, by such distinctive patronymics, of their origin. In the annals of this remote State I shall not enter at any length into the history of their wars, which are, with a change of names and scene, all pretty much alike; but confine myself, after a succinct and connected genealogical relation, to the manners of the people, the aspect, productions, and government of the country. [Abu-l Fazl (Akbarnāma, i. 375) calls him Rāē Lonkaran. According to Erskine (iii. A. 316) the second chief of Bīkaner was Naro or Naruji, son of Bīka, who succeeded A.D. 1504, and died childless after a reign of four months.]
[21]. [For Rāē Singh see Rogers-Beveridge, Memoirs of Jahāngīr, 130 f. According to the Akbarnāma (ii. 518) Akbar’s wife was the daughter of Kahān, brother of Kalyānmall, Rāē of Jaisalmer. The Tuzuk (Āīn, i. 477) says that her father was Rāwal Bhīm, elder brother of Kalyān. Ferishta (ii. 234) says that Kalyānmall was her father, and this statement is accepted by Erskine (iii. A. 316) see Elliot-Dowson v. 336.]
[22]. [Now known as Hanumāngarh, 144 miles N.E. of Bīkaner city (IGI, xiii. 38).]
[23]. In the Annals of Jaisalmer the number of offsets from the Yadu-Bhatti tribe, which assumed the name of Jat, will be seen; an additional ground for asserting that the Scythic Yadu is in fact the Yuti.
[24]. My informant of this tradition was an old inhabitant of Dandusar, and although seventy years of age, had never left the little district of his nativity until he was brought to me, as one of the most intelligent living records of the past. [General Hervey (Some Records of Crime, i. 209) says that a trace of Greek art may be found in the Grecian ram’s head on the hilt of weapons in Bīkaner. For traditions of descent from Alexander based on the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom see Sykes, Hist. of Persia, i. 256[i. 256].]
[25]. The natives of these regions cannot pronounce the sibilant; so that, as I have already stated, the s is converted into h. I gave as an example the name Jahilmer, which becomes ‘the hill of fools’ instead of ‘the hill of Jaisal.’ Sankra, in like manner, becomes Hankra. [Uchh in the Bahāwalpur State (IGI, xxiv. 82). For the Hakra depression see Malik Muhammad Din (Bahāwalpur State Gazetteer, i. 3 ff.). The Ghaggar, once an affluent of the Indus, is lost in the sands near Hanumāngarh or Bhatner (IGI, xii. 212 f.).]
[26]. [His services are described in Āīn, i. 357 ff. Ferishta (ii. 243) says that Rāē Singh killed Muhammad Husain after he was captured. According to another account, Akbar spoke kindly to his captive, and gave him into Rāē Singh’s custody (Elliot-Dowson v. 367).]
[27]. [According to Erskine (iii. A. 319, iii. B. 83) Dalpat Singh and Sūr Singh were Rāos between Rāē Singh and Karan Singh. For these Chiefs see Āīn, i. 359. Karan Singh, according to Musalmān authorities, died in 1666-7 (Manucci ii. 22). In 1660 Aurangzeb sent a force under Amīr Khān to bring him to reason for his insolence in refusing to attend the Emperor’s Court (Jadunath Sarkar, Life of Aurangzib, iii. 29 f.).]
[28]. [J. Scott, Ferishta’s History of the Dekkan[Dekkan], ii. 30.] The young desert chieftain, like all his tribe, would find matter for quarrel in the wind blowing in his face. Having received what he deemed an insult from the brother-in-law of the Shahzada, in a dispute regarding a fawn, he appealed to his sword, and a duel ensued even in the presence-chamber, in which young Mohan fell. The fracas was reported to his brother Padma, at no distance from the scene. With the few retainers at hand, he rushed to the spot, and found his brother bathed in his blood. His antagonist, still hanging over his victim, when he saw the infuriated Rathor enter, with sword and shield, prepared for dreadful vengeance, retreated behind one of the columns of the Āmm Khass (Divan). But Padma’s sword reached him, and avenged his brother’s death; as the record says, “he felled him to the earth, cleaving at the same place the pillar in twain.” Taking up the dead body of his brother, and surrounded by his vassals, he repaired to his quarters, where he assembled all the Rajput princes serving with their contingents, as Jaipur, Jodhpur, Haraoti, and harangued them on the insult to their race in the murder of his brother. They all agreed to abandon the king’s army, and retire to their own homes. A noble was sent to expostulate by Prince Muazzam; but in vain. He urged that the prince not only forgave, but approved the summary vengeance taken by the Rathor; they refused to listen, and in a body had retired more than twenty miles, when the prince in person joined them, and concessions and expostulations overcoming them, they returned to the camp. It was subsequent to this that the two elder brothers were slain. It is recorded of the surviving brother, that he slew an enormous lion in single combat. For this exploit, which thoroughly entitled him to the name he bore (Kesari), ‘the Lion,’ he received an estate of twenty-five villages from the king. He also obtained great renown for slaying a Habshi or Abyssinian chief, who commanded for one of the southern princes.
[29]. [Adoni in the Bellary District, Madras (IGI, v. 24 ff.).]
[30]. [He died at Adoni in 1698 (Erskine iii. A. 322).]
[31]. [According to Erskine (iii. B. 86) he died of smallpox in the Deccan.]
[32]. ‘The children of David,’ the designation of the tract and inhabitants subject to the State of Bahawalpur, from its founder, Daud Khan, a native of Seistan. [For the Dāūdputra clan see Rose, Glossary, ii. 224 f. Their history is fully given by Malik Muhammad Din, Bahāwalpur State Gazetteer, i. 47 ff.]
[33]. She was the sister of the Jhalai chief, heir presumptive to the gaddi of Jaipur, on failure of lineal issue.
[34]. [In the Patiāla State, Panjāb.]
[35]. [Nohar and Bhukārka are about 120 miles N.E. of Bīkaner city.]
[36]. The story of Nala and Damayanti (or Nal Daman, as it is familiarly called in these regions) is well known in oriental literature. From Nal the famed castle of Narwar is named, of which this suitor for the hand of the Bīkaner princess was deprived by Sindhia. [The famous tale of Nala and Damayanti from the Mahābhārata is perhaps best known from Dean Milman’s version. Narwar is now in Gwalior State.]
[37]. [Churu, about 100 miles N.E.E. of Bīkaner city.]
[38]. [Possibly Mojarh, about 40 miles S.E. of Bahāwalpur city.]
[39]. Its former name was Balar, one of the most ancient cities of the desert, as is Phulra, a Johya possession.
[40]. [Not the Khairpur in Sind; 38 miles N.E. of Bahāwalpur city.]
[41]. This account was drawn up in 1814.
[42]. While putting this to the press, rumour says that the chiefs of Bikaner are in open rebellion against the Raja, who has applied, but without success, to the British Government for support. This, if true, is as it should be. [This rebellion occurred in 1815, and the Mahārāja invoked British aid. A treaty was signed on March 9, 1818, by which Sūrat Singh and his successors became subordinate to the British Government. A force under Brigadier-General Arnold restored order (Erskine iii. A. 326).]
[43]. [Bīdāvati, now Sūjangarh, bounded on S. by Jodhpur, and E. by Shaikhāwati (ibid. iii. A. 390 f.).]
[44]. [On S. frontier of the State.]
[45]. [Bidesar or Bidāsar is 64 miles S.S.W. of Bīkaner city.]